You’re a trader. You live a life of glamour, fast cars, leisure
and luxury – everything you’ve ever dreamed of …
Of course, that’s until you discover that trading can be
brutally difficult. If you play the trading game, you are going to
make mistakes – maybe even some like these:
* agonising endlessly over when to enter or exit a trade
* trading like a maverick, risking too much of your capital
* beating yourself up when a trade goes against you
* losing $1 million in a single trade
* clicking ‘buy’ instead of ‘sell’
* buying 10 000 units when you only meant to purchase 1000.
20 Most Common Trading Mistakes reveals market mishaps
from some of the biggest names in trading. Everyone – from stellar
traders to complete novices – can use help learning how to
trade in the black. Why not learn from the masters how to turn
blunders into profit?
Cuprins
Acknowledgements ix
Introduction xi
1 It’s not my fault – I didn’t even know it
was a mistake!
Mistake 1: defining a trading mistake (with Dr Van Tharp) 1
2 The horse goes in front of the cart
Mistake 2: jumping into the market before having learned the
required skills (with David Hunt) 13
3 Failing to plan is planning to fail
Mistake 3: not having a clearly defined and documented trading
plan (with Justine Pollard) 23
4 Get that monkey off my back
Mistake 4: not trusting your own ability (with Louise Bedford)
35
5 Nice knowing me
Mistake 5: not aligning your trading strengths (with Brett
Steenbarger) 45
20 Most Common Trading Mistakes
6 Easy come, easy go
Mistake 6: overcomplicating the entry process (with Russell
Sands) 57
7 Complex complexity
Mistake 7: making trading too complicated (with Davin Clarke)
65
8 Too many contracts, not enough shares
Mistake 8: not understanding money management (with Ryan Jones)
73
9 1000 per cent return in three days – sure, it happens
all the time
Mistake 9: paying good money for a dodgy trading
‘system’ (with Wayne Mc Donell) 87
10 Heads, I win; tails, you lose!
Mistake 10: failing to understand the numbers (with Gary Stone)
97
11 Bet big to lose big
Mistake 11: misusing leverage and margin (with Christopher Tate)
111
12 What’s the time, Mr Wolf?
Mistake 12: confusing time frames and trading strategies (with
Jake Bernstein) 125
13 Where the ^!*# is the exit?
Mistake 13: not having a clearly defi ned exit strategy (with
Larry Williams) 135
14 But the guy on TV said it would go up tomorrow!
Mistake 14: listening to the advice of media and others (with
Glen Larson) 147
15 Half price and still too expensive
Mistake 15: averaging down (with Tom Scollon) 157
16 I’m right! The market’s wrong
Mistake 16: lacking discipline (with Dr Harry Stanton) 165
17 The emotions of a robot
Mistake 17: emotive and subjective trading (Kel Butcher) 173
18 Overworked and underpaid
Mistake 18: overtrading (various) 185
19 Fat fingers, 10 000 too many, and busting trades
Mistake 19: operational errors (with John Robertson) 197
20 I’m sure I filed that somewhere …
Mistake 20: avoiding the paperwork (with Jason Cunningham)
207
Glossary 217
Index 225
Despre autor
Kel Butcher is a financial markets trader with almost 20 years’ experience trading shares, futures, options, warrants and CFDs. Kel is a regular contributor to Your Trading Edge magazine and acts as a consultant to a managed fund, a boutique trading company and a share-trading software developer. Kel is the author of A Step-by-Step Guide to Buying and Selling Shares Online.